Groundbreaking for New MTA Staten Island Railway Arthur Kill Station in Tottenville

October 18th, 2013

MTA New York City Transit President Carmen Bianco, along with other MTA and elected officials participated in the groundbreaking for the first new MTA Staten Island Railway station to be built since the MTA took over the private rail line in 1971. The 27-month construction project, the first such project to include a parking lot, is set to begin this fall. This ADA-compliant station will replace the existing Atlantic and Nassau Stations in the Tottenville section of the borough.

“We are pleased to finally get this project funded and off the shelf,” said Bianco “This new station will replace two outmoded facilities, finally offering our Staten Island Railway customers the kind of station and amenities that they deserve.”

The Arthur Kill Station will feature ADA-compliant ramps, two concrete side platforms with canopies, windscreens and benches, and surveillance cameras and Customer Assistance Intercoms at platform off-hour waiting areas. The station will be able to accommodate a four-car train. In addition, a 150-car parking lot will be built across the street. The Arthur Kill Station is slated to open in late 2015. At that time, the old Nassau and Atlantic Stations will be demolished.

The original Nassau Station was only an 80-foot platform that was extended to 300 feet about 40 years ago funded, in part, by the Nassau Smelting Plant which no longer exists. That extension was closed in 2010 due to its deteriorated condition allowing for a single-door only operation at the station. The Atlantic Station was also built with an 80-foot platform that can only accommodate boarding through one door.

Neither of these stations had been included in previous station modernization projects because the plan, first proposed in the early 1990s, was to build the new Arthur Kill Station between the two. After suffering deferment over the past 20 years due to budget constraints, the project is now fully funded in the amended 2010-2014 Capital Program.

The Nassau and Atlantic stations are both lightly used serving up to 540 customers on an average weekday. “We know that this project will bring welcome relief to our riders,” said MTA Staten Island Railway Vice President/Chief Officer Stepfone Montgomery. “And eventually, we hope it will draw new customers from the South Shore to the railway.”

The $15.3 million construction contract of was awarded to John P. Picone Inc. on July 31, 2013.